Big three establish tower firm

China’s three mobile network operators, China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom have agreed to establish a new company to handle the construction, maintenance and operation of towers and ancillary facilities. The new firm, dubbed China Communications Facilities Services Corporation Ltd, was created with share capital of CNY10 billion (USD1.621 billion), with China Mobile subscribing to 4.00 billion shares, China Unicom to 3.01 billion and China Telecom to 2.99 billion, equating to shareholdings of 40.0%, 30.1% and 29.9% respectively. A joint statement from the trio noted that they were at a preliminary stage in considering potential injection of certain telecom assets into the new company but did not provide further details. The creation of a joint infrastructure management firm will help the cellcos optimise investment and reduce the construction of redundant infrastructure.